Brian Tyree Henry in AtlantaPhoto: Rob Youngson/FX
Atlanta is in the midst of a European rap tour, not to mention an expanded existential question as to whether the events depicted on the show are actually part of its characters’ previously established reality. In other words, it’s not even within sight of your standard sitcom. But even if you’ve never seen the show, or don’t think the 30-minute laugh-and-laugh drama is your thing, White Fashion is a great piece of standalone television about modern day pop culture, a sharp and occasionally wild takedown of cultural co-operatives and what might be called the social justice industrial complex. It’s a deep and thorough exploration of empty signifiers and how much money tends to solve problems for about the same percentage of people who don’t really need it.
Atlanta has dealt with the encroachment of black culture before, but not as extensively as in this episode, 33 minutes full of ideas and melancholic but precise moments of comedy. The main premise: the crew is in London, and Esco Esco, a LVMH-style luxury brand that integrates streetwear, is embroiled in a race-related controversy and needs Paper Boi to save it with good PR. (Their hilarious/terrifying trademark is a Central Park Five athletic jersey-style shirt with a 5 in the appropriate place.) He’s been asked to serve on their “Diversity Advisory Committee,” which will be presented to the press this afternoon. (Bryan Tyree Henry gets another good showcase in this episode, starting with the scene where he orders lunch and then negotiates three years of free clothes – he’s terribly funny.)
In a scene that’s harshly but skillfully staged, Al is fitted for a tailored suit, and Earn worries this is an “Uncle Tom photo op.” He tells Al to propose that the company do something sustainable, invest in black communities, and take care of “the streets,” while Al tells him to get off his high horse: “Fuck the streets,” he says . “I shot people.” We work hard; take all sorts of free samples, he suggests.
Atlanta has introduced its share of memorable guest stars this season, and here the show unveils a character as specific as Socks and Wiley were amorphous — Khalil, an “activist/author/foodie” refined into a species professional brand cleaner for racial missteps. At the press event, the satirical margins are too broad. (“Is this your first time apologizing to white people?” asks Khalil Al. “The dinners are amazing. I haven’t paid for a meal in 73 police shootings.” Then a reporter asked Paper Boi if the campaign promoted racism will end .) But the heavy beatings paint a clear picture: There is nothing subtle about systemic racism or clumsy corporate attempts to profit from it. Fisayo Akinade is spot on as an obnoxious influencer. And the way this episode ends, the tone fits.
The actual Diversity Advisory Committee meeting brings us almost to the satirical heights of Dr. Strangelove: Each member is primarily concerned with lining their own pockets and closets, and is proposing to the fashion brand to buy thousands of copies of a book they wrote (a likely nod to the scandal from the former Baltimore mayor) before closing Join their self-serving organization or just buy them shoes. Al, of course, actually wants to help black people and proposes to Earn’s idea of a Hood reinvestment campaign, which is lukewarmly received but ultimately approved. But they warn him not to take it too seriously: “We’ve been doing this social justice thing for a long time,” says one.
Ultimately, Paper Boi’s idea is watered down into a meaninglessly “inclusive” moody black-and-white commercial, an apt, ponderous montage of diverse minorities, including a making-out Native American and a gender-bending cowboy. In a hilarious confrontation scene, an irate Al claims, “You all lives mattered my shit!” before the most shallow character gives him the ultimate dose of truth about business vs. charity.
Lakeith Stanfield in AtlantaPhoto: Rob Youngson/FX
The second story arc allows us to spend more time with Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) – always an excellent time – as he revisits his Nigerian heritage (but his testicles go unmentioned) and takes a white Esco employee to meet Joloff, the traditional West African, find rice dish. (Perhaps in the episode’s line, Darius describes it as “like your taste buds are being tricked by a Nigerian prince.”) Darius leads her to the spot where she wide-eyed and awestruck. By the end of the episode, she has bought the building from the landlord and placed a food truck outside with a dish named after Darius. (This is also dangerously close to too far — as Darius trudges away, a depressed channel for this appropriation, a jogger urges him to recycle his discarded food — but the pacing and performance make it possible.)
The third storyline eventually reunites Earn and Van and has qualities that are both harrowing and dreamy. After months of separation, the two meet again by chance at a hotel where Van is chilled, almost as cold as Stepford Wives, and urges Earn to relax (again) as she clearly doesn’t seem interested in seeing him . A woman marches into the lobby and accuses Van of shoplifting and attempts to arrest her in a citizens’ arrest, a reference to the Arlo Hotel incident. It’s flashy and well directed (by Ibra Ake, who also wrote the script). But the hotel manager turns out to be Black and dismisses the agitator, and Earn, suggesting that he and Van are newly arrived guests whose reservations have been lost, gets them a free night in a posh suite. This parallels the earlier scene at Esco Esco, in which Paper Boi cleverly negotiates its value in clothing to appease the brand’s racist guilt; Here, Earn received a fringe benefit based on the spectacle. Both of them don’t suit him well. The twist: Van might have shoplifted after all.
Once again, this isn’t the van we got to know. Ultimately, the episode ends with Earn waking up in a hotel room – just like he did after “Three Slaps” and before the events of “Sinterklaas Is Coming To Town” – and she’s gone again. How many of the previous events, if any, were exactly a dream? We’ve received hints that this season’s events are mostly taking place in Earn’s mind, and Van notes that Darius believes they live in a simulation.
One problem with not knowing the full extent of this season’s design is that the creators’ intent is unclear. It’s possible that Earn – once homeless, now the executive of an internationally successful record label – feels guilty in real life about making money in an industry that could perpetuate problems that urgently need to be solved. “The Big Payback” also addressed this: Who should be compensated for what, by and large? White Fashion asks: In a fundamentally corrupt and shameful system, who deserves to cut corners to win back money? The season will play out differently once it’s bingeable and you don’t have as much time to worry about how much is actually happening. Meanwhile, this episode of Atlanta forces you to ask: Where are we really right now? And that seems to be the point.
Crazy observations
- The episode has lots of great throwaway lines, like the Esco Esco designer appraising a shivering model: “Give that girl a cigarette – she’s freezing” and Khalil demanding tickets to see Julia Roberts in Raisin in the Sun (“and it is better not her understudy this time”).
- Another casual exchange packs a serious punch: While Van and Earn are chilling in their hotel room, he happens to reminisce about Nickelodeon cable network Nick or Treat’s annual Halloween campaign. “I’ve never heard ‘Nick or Treat,'” he says.
- Darius has some great moments for his character. Describing Joloff, “I feel like boneless fish is an abomination.”
- The Nigerian movie Sharon Stone playing at the restaurant is actually a real thing (and Sharon happens to be the name of the Esco Esco lackey).
- What we also see is a dream: time is distorted a little. Earn and company have been in London long enough to write, cast and produce a TV commercial and buy a restaurant and convert it into a food truck. Exactly how long does this tour last?
- Those Darius moments, and frankly how good Zazie Beetz is every time she comes on screen, make me feel like we didn’t spend enough time with either of them this season, apart from “Sinterklaas.” There was no Beetz episode this season on the level of “Helen” or a Stanfield showcase like “Teddy Perkins”. Will that change before the season is over and four more episodes follow?